50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[scrape]

That art is badass. Must be the album cover.
The dissonance! This has gotta be one of the more unique DnB songs I’ve seen on here. It all feels very contemporary, akin to the great 20th century composers who upended the idea of traditional harmonies and stepped forward into the use of new sounds (i.e. microtonality, atonal music). And this definitely fits the bill of atonal. It might be too wild for some listeners here to bear, but I can definitely appreciate how experimental this is. Also the percussion work is really impressive and varied. The ending might be a little abrupt, but that might be by design.

Sorry I haven’t been reviewing your tracks recently lmao. I keep telling myself to do it and then forget

vekoN responds:

thank you for the review! iirc this isn't really atonal, it's very chromatic but i believe i made everything revolve around Gm, with a picardy third ending

also i appreciate the comparison to the great 20th century composers! :)

again thank you for listening

[Twilight Symphony]

Modern take on the Dimrain style! It’s really brought home with the snare clap at 1:04. Sudden key changes are also very indicative of his style lmao. Drums at 2:32 are beyond anything he would’ve written but I like it tbh. I’ve listened to the vast majority of his music; he’s one of my favorite artists here even all these years later.

G2961 responds:

Thanks for the comment!!! Yeah, it's a slightly different take on his style, but as usual I couldn't help but add the DnB part with the hard drums at the end, lol. Yeah, he never used automation on the semitone change as far as I know, he usually raised the semitones starting from a new beat, not so abruptly.
To me he is also one of the greatest musicians and phenomena of this site, I especially like his track The Falling Mysts. It's a very cool and atmospheric Trance track.

[Expeeriemental]

A short little piece this time. It’s interesting how there’s tension and release in a whole tone piece like this, done solely through expression and nothing else. Reminds me of Ives’ whole tone pieces in that sense. And it’s cool to see you try new scales and stuff instead of sticking to major or minor. Honestly I’d love to hear your take on Phrygian or Lydian next.

Solacitude responds:

It was quite a challenge to come up with something, I was playing around improvising with this scale and ended up recording a couple somewhat "good" takes so I decided to put it here. No 5th and no semi tones makes for a bit of a difficult time, completely out of my comfort zone.

This mode gives very little opportunities to resolve or to develop ideas into something that I would deem more "easy listening". Though it's a very interesting exercise! At first I though I was playing with the mystic scale, but then figured the note A is part of it as well acting as 5th note of the scale.... Which I don't use in there. So in the end I'm not sure how to call this, maybe pentatonic whole tone scale ^^ It creates interesting sound I think that would fit quite well in some instances to evoke mystery, unsettling feeling. I might use it at some point, with parsimony, in more regular compositions too. Next time I'll try to go for a more complex and full, proper piece, with normal keys/scales.

I might explore Phrygian and Lydian modes a little bit more too! I often find myself going back to the good old Ionian/Aeolian.

Thank you for passing by and leaving a review! ^^

[Solacitude x crispy - Ultimatum]

As someone who loves both calamity and interstellar, this feels right at home. And the key change works surprisingly well. I find it funny that I first heard about dm dokuro not through calamity but through GD, with reality check through the skull. So yeah I’ve known him for a while.

Solacitude doing a collab isn’t something I expected, but it makes total sense. It’s always better to have a live performer than a soundfont, no matter how good the sampler is. I do think the strings could have swelled more, at the moment it kinda feels like sol stole the show! Though I did listen to this without headphones. Excellent job here!

crispybatteryacid responds:

Gotta love DM Dokuro, hes why I started making music

I believe this is Sol's first collab, and I was honoured to have been a part of it; but yeah he def carried this one lol. Glad you enjoyed!

[Contemplation]

It’s exercises like these that show how incredible of a pianist you are. Able to work within strict limits yet able to make something this musical. This is one of my favorites of yours. Actually incredible

Solacitude responds:

Thank you so much! I was putting it here just because I thought maybe it could bring some peace of mind to someone else, but being your favorite goes beyond my expectation!

Thanks for the feedback and generous compliments! That this piece could at least give to someone else a little bit of the comfort it gives to me is all I could ask for ^^

[The Day that Won't Come]

I, for one, have been very glad to see you branch out more recently and try new things. Can’t remember the last time you made a piano centric piece like this tbh.

Definitely a jazzy feel with that intro. A mixture of basic cadences and extended harmonies, like other piano jazz pieces I’ve heard. Combining the traditional with the new (though not really that new anymore lol) in a unique blend of texture and rhythm.
A softer section follows that brings us to a section that reminds me a lot of the spirit of your older music. It’s hard to describe, gives almost a throwback vibe. Honestly this whole piece reminds me of your older music, which is definitely not a bad thing because in many ways those songs have their own nice qualities. The ending feels a little abrupt for some reason, maybe because it’s not really built up to much.

It’s just refreshing to know that you can still compose heartwarming pieces without cinematic choir sounds. Wondering if I can compose without my illustrious trumpet or snare drum, lmao. Anyway really nice job on this as always; kinda makes me wanna try solo piano again after the failures of etude no 1 and the much lesser known (and I think still unpublished) etude no 2. Don’t think you’d remember those since they’re something else (and probably impossible to play).

Tangerine responds:

Thank you! It really has been a fat minute since I've made something like this. I quite enjoy making jazz-styled songs and I think I should do it more often. Still, though, I enjoy making orchestral music way too much xd. Perhaps I'll make a big band song sometime this year ;).

Not gonna lie, the reason this sounds like one of my older pieces is likely because it is one of my older pieces. The chords and melodies were made years ago. I just thought it'd be a fun exercise to try writing for solo piano.

I think a staple of my older songs was how often I made jazz songs along with the more cinematic stuff. I guess now that my quality has increased and my standards have risen, I slowly stopped making jazz songs because I don't have access to or the ability to use any decent jazz samples. Besides, half the joy of jazz genres like big band is the soloism in them. I don't think I could replicate that synthetically and I certainly don't have the skills to play them physically. Perhaps if I get myself a midi keyboard I might just be able to pull it off.

As for the choir, I don't think I rely too terribly much on it. I do use it a lot but not as a crutch. If you look at some of my more choir-heavy songs, you can see that strings honestly do most of the heavy lifting. Autumn wind for example. With the exception of that one section, most of the lyrical passages are done by piano or strings.

For some of my newer pieces like High Noon and Hall of the Pumpkin King, the trumpet carries the melodies a lot more than the choir does. Choir is mostly used as texture and occasionally as the melody. If I were to suddenly lose the choir as a tool, I don't think my music would be impacted as badly as if strings or brass were taken away.

Pieces like High Noon have a heavy concentration of Choir because that's one of the main pillars of the genre and how I understand the Western themes. I did try and incorporate a larger variety of instruments such as the guitar and the Mexican whistle.

A lot of the emotion I spew into my songs typically comes from chord choice rather than thought-out instrumentation.

But yeah I should do jazz more. This was fun :)

[Let's Bounce]

This song is so unique. I honestly can’t think of anything that sounds remotely like it. I was introduced to it through GD, though it wasn’t ditched machine that did it, it was some other random grayscale level which was much easier.

The synth at the start always sounded like a really well mixed cello, and as a cello player that part hit home. Into the bouncy melody with a very very strange bassy synth thing that more or less defines the song. One of the more obscure memories of my childhood that I still think about from time to time. Also I only ever knew you as shtigra or whatever since that was the name you showed up as in GD.

Edit: the level was called vertex by echonox. It actually has more likes than the jeyzor level.

Zodin responds:

Thank you for the kind review :)
You know, when I originally made this I thought that it wouldn't do too well because some of the sounds used are a bit 'harsh'. But I am very glad that you enjoy the uniqueness of the track.

Yeah I did used to be called Shtriga many many years ago across all my platforms. It is the name of a creature from the TV series - Supernatural. But I figured I needed a proper name to go more official :)

Thanks again and I hope you continue to enjoy some of my newer stuff too!

[Heart]

Reminds me of those youtube pieces which look like cats but still sound good

EarthDash75GMD responds:

yep

[Survive the Night]

This is actually phenomenal. I think this might be my favorite composition of yours ever. Finally something that surpasses the sun has toes.

There are very few complaints I have about the mix; it's actually really well done. I feel like your use of choir has evolved here to be a lot more tasteful, since in your other recent pieces I feel like it was used a bit too much. Though I did nothing but use the same instrument for like 3 years so I guess I can't really complain too much.

The little story that accompanies the piece is cute, but does go against what I think you said to me a long time ago about wanting your music to speak for itself. Me personally I decided to listen to the entire composition before reading the story. And let's just say I was blown away. The melody is catchy and waltzy. The piano introduction is something different and immediately tells you that this is no ordinary Tangerine piece and that we're in for something truly special. When I ranted about branching out and trying new things, this is a great step in that direction. The only complaint I have is by 6:25 the melody does start getting a little repetitive with the xylophone/piano/percussive instrument thingies doing similar chords consistently for the entire first half it feels like. It's all very tightly made with the winds getting huge attention here which I appreciate. Im making a windy composition myself anyways, though I am fashionably late to review this. Luckily you change things up quite a bit at 7:19 which I think was a really smart move tbh. 9:28 is a really nice moment that hints at a happier section coming up.
Then we get to the main part of the piece in my opinion: the second half. It starts at 10:04 and it basically your best work in my opinion. I mean the soft flute melody coming in gave me shivers listening to this. AHHHHHHHHHHH minor VI type shenanigans at 10:39 so JUICYYYYYY

11:18 is this the same guy who just made the lord has come? Soft flute with delicate pizzicato and swelling strings in the background driving the song forward??? Piano solo to snap us back to reality???? Calling this a theme and variations would be doing a disservice to the level of composition here. It's so much more than that. Now at 12:35, I would've switched away from flute for a bit cause they just got a ton of time to shine. I'm thinking maybe english horn or even clarinet might work there better. Regardless, it's still brilliant. The random major key shift at 13:24 was a little jarring but still works tbh. 13:47, that chord is awesome.

Holy SHIT can we talk about 14:18-14:50. Every instrument that's added blends so well it's crazy. I can hardly tell what's playing cause it's all so resonant. I have no idea how you got that sound but PLEASE do that more. You're giving me inspiration now with that like that's crazy. Probably my favorite moment in the entire piece. Soft piano in the background never gets old. And that return to the theme is really cool too. Oh hey look clarinet at 16:21. This is the literal definition of a symphonic poem, something you haven't really made to this scale before. And mine was like 6 minutes both times so this definitely beats it out in scale.

And how do you end this glorious masterpiece? With a descending cello line and a final resolution. While I like the spotlight on the cellos at the end, I feel like the outro didn't really do it justice. Still good though. What a wild ride this was, I'm gonna shut up now.

Tangerine responds:

Thanks! You're too kind xd. I still don't think I've creatively recovered from this lol. It took a lot out of me and I'm slowly regaining my creativity lol.

You're so right! I don't think I've ever used an English horn before. That could have an interesting texture.

I also really like the Spirit by the Lake section. Though, a huge complaint that I have about it that I will eventually go and fix is that it was suuuuper rushed. The flute's timing is off and a bunch of other small things that I've got to go and fix. Honestly, it might be worth it to just make it into its own full piece lol.

While making 14:18, I thought to myself "What if I do a regular string opening but use harmonics instead" and that's the sound that came out of that idea. I really like how the regular arco strings slowly fade in as the sound fills out.

I get what you mean when you said "I'm making a windy composition myself" I'd say Presage is the gold standard of how to make full use of the strings. I love it so much. I've been listening to it on loop xd.

The ending is a bit odd because I wasn't expecting it to be the ending. the last movement was the one I made first and I was planning to have the others follow it. But in the end I decided that it fit the best at the finish and then called it a day xd.

[Hi-LiGHT]

The intro sets the mood for sure. The voice lines set the stage for them being used more. But the transition into 0:26 has a weird clipping sound, and again at 1:48. It almost sounds like an overly loud hi-hat. It takes you out of the immersion a little bit. I can't even describe what it is fully but it is definitely noticeable. Sounds like you might need a stronger crash there to bring in the extremely fast melody. 0:47 is a very quick transition into a dubsteppy part that I'm not sure entirely fits with the rest of the song. Also the high end at 1:08 feels very crowded to me. Pretty much the only thing in the lower register there is the kick drum. I do like the guitar and voice lines in the section following though. At 2:08 the snares are extremely quiet and could be turned up a ton I feel like. Also the synths get a bit chaotic there, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Overall this is definitely a bop with a few rough areas around the edges for improvement that don't significantly hinder the fact that it's a bop. Thanks for coming out!

icantpronouncethis responds:

Thank you so much for the thorough analysis of this track. I think I've added a bitcrusher that fades in for that weird clicky part. I think I added that for texture thing. Now that you mentioned, I might just get rid of the crush because it doesn't seem to matter too much for the track. I always pull back when it comes to beats and I was hoping I pushed a bit more for this one. Definitely I'll be looking this once more before I package it. Thank you so much,